Maine Outdoor Journal

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Karl Baker, left, of Philadelphia, and Steve Childs of Lancaster, England, relax in a room at Shaw's in Monson earlier this month.

Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

SHAW'S BOARDING HOUSE

SHAW'S BOARDINGHOUSE serves the Appalachian Trail hikers who pass through Monson on their way to the 100-Mile Wilderness from May 15 to Oct 15.

THE BOARDINGHOUSE opened in 1977 and was sold last year to a Monson local who grew up beside the trail and a former longtime summer resident.

LOCATED AT THE southern edge of the 100-Mile Wilderness, the town of Monson is just 3.5 miles from where the trail crosses Route 15, south of Moosehead Lake.

IT OFFERS A bunk room, single rooms, hot showers, a famous all-you-can-eat breakfast and shuttle services.

FOR MORE information, go to www.shawslodging.com or call 997-3597.

And as Childs made his way north toward the 100-Mile Wilderness in Maine, he heard southbound hikers talking about Shaw's, the boardinghouse in Monson famous for its home fries and hospitality.

"You get into a zone on the trail ... All you remember is the people. And you hear about Shaw's, and that the breakfast is all- you-can-eat," Childs said during a recent stay.

The Appalachian Trail runs across Route 15 in Monson, 3 1/2 miles north of its tiny downtown. Shaw's boardinghouse, made famous to non-hikers in Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods," opened in 1977. It was run for 27 years by Pat and Keith Shaw, a Monson couple who built the lodge's reputation for warm welcomes.

Last year, when the Shaws put the house up for sale, two women planning their retirement bought it. And being from Monson, Dawn MacPherson-Allen and Susan Stevens knew the house's tradition of helping hikers.

Neither woman had experience running a lodge, but both had experience helping others.

"I was a schoolteacher for 37 years. Susan raised three boys. It's no different," said MacPherson-Allen.

MacPherson-Allen, 60, grew up in Monson and spent most of her life on Pleasant Street, next to Lake Hebron, watching hikers walk up and down the street, from town to Shaw's.

Stevens, 63, spent 38 years as a Monson summer resident, living on the other side of Lake Hebron with her late husband Robert, a Monson native.

The two women say running the boardinghouse during the hiking season - from May to October - is tiring, all-consuming, and a nonstop commitment. It also gives them a buzz.

"It is overwhelming sometimes. It is helping other people that is rewarding," said Stevens, who grew up in Vermont hiking sections of the Appalachian Trail, which was completed in 1937.

The reward is that everyone hiking the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail that stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine knows about Shaw's welcoming ways.

"It's an icon of the trail," said Stan "Tortuga" Krajeski, 48, who maintains a section of the trail in Georgia.

He waited 10 years to hike it, and knew about Shaw's before he did.

"Everyone knows about Shaw's. It's known along the trail because of the hospitality given to hikers," Krajeski said.

BIG REPUTATION, SMALL TOWN

Downtown Monson - the tiny stretch of stores along Route 15 - lies at the start of the 100-Mile Wilderness, which is made up of mountain terrain, forests, lakes, and streams that must be crossed.

Shaw's is a two-minute walk up Pleasant Street from downtown.

MacPherson-Allen and Stevens know everyone at the General Store, where hikers restock their supplies; at the Lake Shore House, where music sessions on Friday nights allow hikers to join in; and at the Mobil station, where ravenous hikers feed their appetites with pizza and ice cream.

Everything a hiker could want is in this town, and it's all just a two-minute walk from Shaw's.

"You know, my high school was bigger than this town. My graduating class was half the size of it. There are 650 people in this town," said Alaina Copsey, 19, who was staying at Shaw's with a group from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va.

Shaw's is a two-story farmhouse in a residential neighborhood. It can sleep 15, with half of those staying in a large bunk room filled with brightly colored twin beds.

The cost of lodging ranges from $32 for a single to $21.50 for the bunk room. The breakfast costs everyone $6.50.

A large common room - where both the television and laundry machines are located - spills into an enormous kitchen.

A small breakfast room sits off the kitchen, as does MacPherson-Allen's office, where hikers register.

Two big bulletin boards there are covered with sticky notes full of the names of hikers who make reservations under their birth name or their trail name, which many going North use exclusively by the time they reach Monson.

A small blue board with pegs holds room keys, and packages of toothbrushes, for anyone who needs them.

A small tin basin with "WELCOME" painted on it offers lemongrass soap made locally.

"They all get one. The bugs don't like it," MacPherson-Allen said.

These kind touches, as well as the willingness to pick up hikers anytime, anywhere, is part of what makes Shaw's well known.

"We do it all the time. We run over to Stratton, Andover and Rangeley," MacPherson-Allen said, mentioning western Maine towns that are hours away.

Nina Kulbert, of Pittsfield, Mass., didn't expect the service she got when she turned her ankle in the 100-Mile Wilderness and called MacPherson-Allen for a shuttle to Shaw's.

"She asked, what should she bring us. I said, 'Ben & Jerry's ice cream.' So she brought us Ben & Jerry's. And, she brought us two spoons," Kulbert said, while resting her ankle in an armchair at Shaw's.

Where Shaw's sits on the Appalachian Trail, at an end of the grueling 100-Mile Wilderness, has a lot to do with why this house of hospitality is so important.

BREAKFAST BOUNTY

William Scoular, or "Churchyard Drunk" as he is known on the trail, arrived at Shaw's two weeks ago after hiking through the 100-Mile Wilderness.

He arrived at 4 a.m., in the rain, with a ferocious appetite.

Which, he said, is why he came here.

"I had four sunnyside-up eggs, a mound of bacon, a mound of sausage, four (pieces of) French toast, and seconds on everything but the eggs," Scoular said of the staff-cooked breakfast.

Scoular, a financial adviser from Austin, Texas, who tackles major hiking trails every few years, believes that hiking with less in your pack is best.

A hiker traveling with less gear can move faster, he said. But a hiker moving with less food in their pack also is famished when they reach civilization.

"Walking the trail, you enjoy basic things. Everything you took for granted becomes a major-league benefit," said Scoular.

Whether hikers ascribe to the concept of hiking with less or moving with more, they all seem to arrive at Shaw's with a screaming appetite.

That was true for Krajeski, and Childs.

The breakfast is a big part of the Shaw's tradition.

"We do it the same the Shaws did. They tell us how many eggs they want. If it's three, then they get three pancakes, three sausage, three pieces of bacon. If it's four, then they get four of everything. Then, they can have seconds," MacPherson said. "One young man got eight."

In the breakfast room, three big tables leave room for hungry hikers when the house is full, like the night Scoular was there.

It is warm with red-and-white checked tablecloths, wooden chairs, curtains and maps of Lake Hebron and Monson.

But, in truth, the decor here goes unnoticed by most hikers.

"The three things they want are hot showers, food and beer," MacPherson-Allen said. "And not in that order."

MacPherson-Allen and Stevens may have taken on Shaw's in their retirement years, but they plan to run the lodging house for many years to come.

That will be a comfort to many hikers on the Appalachain Trail, where rumors and expectations spread like fire.

"You hear on the trail how Shaw's (was sold). And you say, 'Oh, that's terrible.' And then you hear: The breakfast is still all-you- can-eat," said Childs, the Englishman who was staying there two weeks ago. "And you go, 'Ahhh.' "

Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:

dfleming@pressherald.com